Tag: cross-national research

Rosa M. Bosch writes this interesting article (in Spanish) in La Vanguardia on “green gentrification” in Barcelona. The sociologist and geographer Dr. Isabelle Anguelovski has analyzed how has changed the socioeconomic profile of people living near gardens and parks created in Barcelona between 1992 and 2000. The study suggests that the new areas have attracted wealthy neighbors and move away poor ones. Importantly, the article also echo the fact that Amguelovski will conduct a new cross national research, funded by EU (Starting Grant from European Research Council) with 1.5 million euros, in which the situation of 20 cities in Europe will be compared with other US 20. They will “make a ranking of environmentally fairer populations and determine their social impact and health”.

The “World Values ​​Survey International Open Seminar” will be held at the University of Almería on the 24th and 25th of November 2014. This conference is organized by the Department of Sociology and marks the release of the sixth wave of the World Values Survey (http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org). The conference will feature published papers and current research using this survey.

Interest in the World Values ​​Survey is not new in the ​​Sociology Department at the University of Almería. Encouraged by the Department chair, Professor Gonzalo Herranz Rafael, many in the department (including Pilar Rodríguez Martínez, Juan Sebastián Fernández Prados and Juan Carlos Checa Olmos) have been visiting scholars the University of Michigan, specifically the Institute for Social Research, hosted by Ronald Inglehart. Over the years, professors in the department have started using the World Values ​​Survey (WVS) both in their teaching and in their research as it is one of the best global surveys on changes in values ​​and its impact on social and political life. The WVS is based on nationally representative surveys in more than 100 countries containing almost 90percent of the world’s population, thus allowing cross-country comparisons. There have been six waves of surveys (from 1981 to 2014) which make longitudinal analyses possible. Furthermore, by making the data freely downloadable, the organization behind the WVS allows researchers to work at no extra cost.

Like the World Values ​​Survey, this seminar is open and dynamic. It starts with a basic program which is available on this website but also we open the seminar to other proposals focused on the WVS.

Almería (Spain), 24-25 Nov 2014

(Deadline: Abstracts on 20th October 2014. Full manuscripts on 14th November 2014)

I have recently posted several interesting sources of secondary data for cross-national research. Each one with one or another strength. For instance, I found Trading Economics very useful to compare nations all over the world and by mean innumerable economic indicators. Another source, the Eurostat´s Regional Statistics Illustrate, although the data are limited to Europe, it stands for the possibility to represent data into more diverse formats, such as maps, distribution plot or scatter plot, among others. It also counts with information disaggregated by European regions.

In this post I want to present another source that, having some of the above utilities, I find more appropriate to compare specific countries. It is Google Public Data. The available indicators are also broad and from different sources, such as World Bank, World Economic Forum or Eurostat. But the advantage I see here is that Google facilitates the labor to compare not all countries together but just the ones interesting for one´s research. For instance, when one just wants to compare the evolution of abortions in such countries as Spain, Portugal and Poland, like in the above chart. It also owns a variety of forms to represent data at the top-right corner. The information can´t be represented by regions, though.

Today I stumbled across this sophisticate Eurostat tool that allow map social and economic data by European regions. It is similar to the one I commented in an earlier post, also from Eurostat. But what I like most here is the possibility to visualize data in a variety of charts such as distribution plot, scatter plot, bar chart or data table. Well, I also love the animated maps that show the data evolution. They are superb, aren´t they? Visit here the site

I found something very interesting when looking for secondary dat on Poland GDP growth rate. It is an outstanding tool to compare economic indicators by countries. They offer, among other things, the exportation of data into excel as well as represent it in maps.

Commodious, utilitarian and valid tool for secondary data based and European cross-national research. Relevant information on economy and finance; population and social conditions; industry, trade and services; agriculture and fisheries; transport; science and technology; among others.

The European Commission has published for the first time a scoreboard on transport infrastructure ranking the EU’s 28 member states. Secondary data on a wide number of indicators can be consulted. The Commission used data from Eurostat, the European Environment Agency, the World Bank and the OECD to come up with the scores. The online tool can be broken down my mode of transport (road, rail, waterborne, air) or by categories including infrastructure, adherence with EU law, logistics, access to market and environmental impact. Scoreboard can only offer a snapshot, but it gives a point of reference and a good source to inspire research on mobility and transport.